What are the best advance training tips for personal protection dogs? What are the top training tips for security dogs? Well, I advice you read on to find out. Do you know that with minimal effort, you can train your dog to respond whenever you call its name? Also, you can easily teach it basic commands such as “sit”, “lie down”, “stand”, “run”, and so on.
But converting your dog into an effective personal protection dog takes much more effort and patience, as you will need to teach it advanced techniques such as attacking on command, stopping and retreating when commanded, and so on. And this is why most dog owners prefer hiring the services of dog training experts.
As for me, I like doing most things myself rather than hire someone for some hard-earned bucks. So, if you are anything like me, then you wouldn’t welcome the idea of taking your dog to an expert for advanced protection training. The truth is that you can successfully train your dog on your own.
So in this article, I will share with you 10 proven tips on how you can easily teach your dog advanced guarding techniques. Apply these tips, and your dog will learn fast and will quickly become that efficient guard you wanted it to be:
- How to train your dog to attack on command
- How to train Pit bulls to become guard dogs
- German training system for guard dogs
10 Advanced Security Training Tips for Personal Protection Dogs
Table of Content
1. Start training your dog at a young age
Never believe the myth that young dogs cannot learn advanced commands. The truth is that the best time to teach your dog anything is when it is still young. Dog training experts recommend 7 to 12 weeks of age.
When you train your dog at a very young age, it retains whatever it learns more strongly, and you may not have to repeat the training again later. But as for older dogs, they learn at a slower pace and may require repeat trainings at intervals. Just as an old saying goes: “You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.”
2. Keep training sessions short
Most dogs – especially at young age – have a short attention span and tend to get bored easily. So, you should stop the training as soon as you observe that your dog is losing interest (Dogs show this in various ways, and you should be able to tell it when yours is bored). On the average, dogs start to lose interest in an activity after 30 to 40 minutes.
3. End trainings on a good note
Always create a positive situation before ending your training session. It’s a bad idea to stop training your dog just after disciplining or yelling angrily at it. This affects the dog’s emotions and may disturb the learning process. Sometimes your dog may annoy you during a training session. But rather than stop the session in anger at that moment, wait until you are calm again.
4. Choose a fixed time of the day
When teaching your dog some advanced commands, you should have a fixed time of the day for your training sessions. After some time, your dog will get used to this timing, and whenever the time is approaching, it will show its eagerness to learn.
5. Use light leashes
For your training sessions, only use lightweight leashes or leads that are about six feet long. Using heavy leather leashes could be very distractive.
6. Use commands consistently
Consistently using the same commands is very important when training your dog. Dogs quickly get used to keywords. For example, if you have started training your dog to attack after hearing the word “attack”, don’t ever change your command word to “bite” or something else. This will only confuse your dog.
7. Avoid using negatives and combined words
Always train your dog with single word commands, such as “attack”, “stop”, etc. Avoid being tempted into saying combined words such as “don’t sit”, “please attack”, “attack now”, “I need you to attack”, and so on. Such combinations can confuse your dog and make it misbehave rather than carry out your command.
8. Make it fun
Before and after each training session, play the dog’s favorite game or serve it some treats. This will create a positive experience and make your dog learn faster and look forward anxiously to training sessions.
9. Use consistent volume and tone
Your dog may not respond to your commands if you use a harsher or softer tone than the one you trained it with. So, when training your dog, always use the same tone that will use to commanding it. This way, you will avoid confusing the dog. However, if you want to dog to respond to your command, irrespective of the tone, then familiarize it with different tones and volumes.
As a final note, you must avoid changing tutors while training your dog. Before commencing training, decide on who would tutor your dog. Would you teach it yourself? Would you hire a dog-training expert? Make a firm decision from the start. This is very necessary, as changing tutors can confuse the dog and slow down the learning process.
With these 10 tips, I believe you will successfully teach your dog advanced security techniques on how to protect you and your family or home.